CHINA: Big Numbers Attend Activity Schools for Seniors

BEIJING (China Daily/Xinhua), January 17, 2005: Pan Li, a 63-year-old professor at the elite Tianjin University of Science and Technology, doesn't mind getting up at dawn to join her friends for ballet. Braving subzero temperatures in the dead of a north China winter, the chance to showcase her superb dancing skills is as exciting as lecturing students in her field of physics. "Ballet helps stretch my limbs," said Pan as she expertly tied the pink ribbons of her ballet shoes around her ankles. "In fact, it's brought great changes to my temperament and way of life." Pan registered for a ballet dance program at a senior citizens school in Tianjin's Heping District three years ago. She has kept to it ever since, joining the growing number of senior citizens who are being encouraged to enjoy a more active lifestyle. "Both my knees were injured and operated on before, and I often tumbled in the past," Pan said. "My legs are more muscular since I took up dancing, and despite my age, I'm always full of vigor." The performances by these amateur ballerinas may not be elegant in the eyes of professional dancers, but they're enough to enable Pan and her peers to experience a sense of accomplishment. "They're great and diligent, too," said their tutor, a veteran ballet dancer who gave only her family name, Wang. "They manage to learn to tiptoe at age 50 or 60, while most career dancers started before 30." In Heping District, at least 23,000 elderly people, or 37 percent of the district's total, are attending special courses at senior citizen schools. "I idled the first two years of my retired life with TV or playing mahjong," said a veteran blue-collar worker surnamed Li. "All that I cared about in those days was how to win back what I had lost in the previous game." Today, Li said all her friends at the mahjong table have joined her on the stage at a senior citizen school. Besides ballet dancing and fashion shows, the elderly students are also taking up photography, piano, traditional Peking opera, computers, painting, calligraphy and numerous other courses, said Meng Zhaozeng, vice president of the Senior Citizens School in the district. "It's crucial to help the elderly pick up new information and skills to enrich their spiritual life," said Meng.